Legislators to convene at Capitol Jan. 9

LITTLE ROCK — The regular session of the 94th General Assembly of the Arkansas State Legislature will begin at noon on Jan. 9 when both chambers convene at the State Capitol Building.

Legislators will convene just one day before Governor-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders takes the oath of office and becomes inaugurated as the 47th governor of Arkansas on Jan. 10. Elected in November after besting Democrat challenger Chris Jones and Libertarian Ricky Dale Harrington Jr., Sanders will become the first woman to be the state’s governor. Following her swearing-in, Sanders will give her inaugural address and an inaugural ball will follow that night at the State Capitol.

To this point in the buildup to the session, legislators have filed some 41 bills in the State House, six bills in the State Senate, one House Resolution and one House Concurrent Resolution.

There are a total of 40 new legislators entering the new session, with 27 of the legislators in the House and 13 in the Senate. Once the legislature convenes on Jan. 9, the politicians will get to work in meeting several upcoming deadlines on certain types of legislation.

Per the Arkansas State Legislature website, legislators must file certain types of healthcare, retirement legislation and employee health benefits plans legislation by Jan. 23, constitutional amendments and lottery-funded scholarship legislation by Feb. 8 and appropriations bills by Feb. 27.

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JONESBORO — Reports of new coronavirus infections declined by 13 percent statewide last week, a Sun review of daily reports from the Arkansas Department of Health found.

The state reported 3,068 new cases between Dec. 19 and Sunday, down from 3,530 the previous sevenday period. Because Sunday was Christmas day, county-level totals were unavailable.

On Tuesday, the health department reported 308 new cases, down from the 395 reported on Monday.

Pulaski County had 53 of the new cases, followed by Craighead County with 25, Mississippi County with 22, Greene with 19 and Benton County with 18.

Active cases dropped by 360 statewide to 5,560.

COVID-related hospitalizations totaled 305, an increase of 10 since Monday. Of those, 10 were on ventilators, a decrease of 1. Northeast Arkansas hospitals reported 43 COVID-patients, an increase of three. One patient was on a ventilator.

The statewide death toll stood at 12,682, unchanged from Monday.

Crittenden County had 14 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in the county to 16,346. There have been 241 deaths in the county attributed to COVID-19.